Arieh Warshel won more than just the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday: He earned a free parking spot for life at the university where he works.

The University of Southern California says that privilege goes to all Nobel laureates from the school. University President C.L. Max Nikias told Warshel he will get a reserved spot and receive a refund for the parking he paid for so far this year.

"Chemists used to create models of molecules using plastic balls and sticks. Today, the modelling is carried out in computers," the academy said. "In the 1970s, , and laid the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes. Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today."

“It’s like seeing a watch and wondering how it actually works,” Dr. Warshel said. “So in short, what we developed is a way, which required a computer, to take the structure of a protein and then to eventually understand how exactly it does what it does.” ...

Martin Karplus, a US-Austrian citizen, Michael Levitt, a US-British citizen, and Arieh Warshel of the US and Israel, were honoured "for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems," the Nobel jury said.

The three were being honoured for "taking the experiment to cyberspace," it added.

Warshel’s triumph marks the fourth Nobel Prize awarded to a member of the USC faculty. Previously, Daniel McFadden, George A. Olah and Murray Gell-Mann won the award for economic sciences, chemistry and physics, respectively.

"...an important feature of the techniques developed by Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is that they can be applied to all types of chemistry. As a result, they are now not only being used to study molecules that are important for life, but also to develop new industrial processes, build better solar cells and synthesize new drugs. ..."